


Burning Rhapsody

by BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Original Character-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 11:53:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19790335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder/pseuds/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder
Summary: An answer to a question only I felt bound to ask.





	Burning Rhapsody

Red as any Human's, the Faunus' blood soaked her body, staining the Anima snow beneath her. Her daughter stared at the decaying piece of meat that until thirty seconds before had been the woman who'd cared for her all her life.

Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds earlier, her mother had been alive; thirty seconds earlier, she might have been saved, might have lived fifty more years. As the little Faunus girl had these thoughts, another thirty seconds ticked by. From somewhere, a screeching intermittent sawtooth wave filled the brush.

Cadie screamed, ready to kill her alarm clock. On the opposite wall, May rolled over as Cadie caught her breath.

Of course, in the waking world, Cadie hadn't seen her mother's corpse until it had been embalmed. That twisted fantasy - that she might have saved her, but couldn't - she couldn't say when it had been born in her mind, but for years she'd been haunted by that vision of her death. In her adult mind's eye, she thought it must not have been as dramatic as she imagined it - that they might not even have realized she was dead - and she hated herself for it.

 _If only she'd been murdered,_ Cadie sometimes thought, and hated herself for thinking. It would be easier then - she would have someone to blame. There was always Jacques Schnee, of course, but he was an instrument of, really, of something impersonal, his fatal puppeteering likely as much an abstraction to himself as to her. Maybe someone kinder might take the reins, but what strangled her mother would still have been the reins, not the hand pulling them.

As for Cadie's father, whether the Schnees had gotten him killed before she could form memories, or whether he'd just been some rake who'd run off to his next conquest, Cadie had never had the chance to ask, since that damnable family had killed her mother so soon. It didn't matter. Cadie had a show that day, and she had to dress the part.

In the years leading up to the Great War, they say that unlicensed artists found in Anima would be summoned to the court of the emperor of Mistral. If they could show that anyone in his court knew their work, down to the lowest hidalgo's most junior housekeeper, they would be granted a license, usually one exclusive to the imperial core; if not, they would be executed. From this "Royal Test" Cadie's band took its name, at the suggestion of the Faunus who knew all too well the hypocrisies of Mistral.

Something else Cadie had taken from the hypocrisies of Mistral was a habit she'd heard from the headmaster of Haven. If Cadie knew he was a Faunus, everyone must, but still he would always wear a long coat and stand with his legs closed at all times, to hide his tail. Likewise, Cadie had come up with the idea of matching coats, a mockery of his; white, the color of cowardice, with the trim of the blond beast that had given him his tail, gold.

Cadie's bandmates were May, Rusty (or "R.T."), and Vestal. Cadie and May had met in foster care; Cadie had been the only Faunus in the home, and May had been fiercely protective. Cadie never knew why May had been the way she was - she'd asked a few times whether one of her parents had been a Faunus, or had known a Faunus, and May always laughed off the notion. She hadn't known her parents, she'd always told her.

Nonetheless, May had effectively cut herself off from the rest of the group home in favor of Cadie. Even the den mother would single Cadie out to torment her; May would try to interfere, but for most of this time, they were both children. Cadie's screams would echo through the group home.

That night on stage, Cadie's jet black tail flicked out from beneath the base of her coat. In the early days of the band, she'd worn bindings to keep it to her back. There'd been no point, since anyone who'd buy a ticket to a Royal Test show would already know she was a Faunus. Even if they'd somehow bought a ticket without knowing the band, Cadie thought, they might well have seen her on the news that horrible day - but then, what was one more Faunus miner killed? Still, even though she would ache every night, she would do it, and even after she stopped, she'd keep her legs tight together.

Of late, a twee little love song they'd almost cut had buoyed Royal Test into stardom - apparently, some kid in their bedroom had come up with a dance to it, which now everyone with a Scroll had memorized. Between shows, Vestal came in carrying a tabloid with their photos on the cover. "Look!" she shouted. The other three all laughed, passing the tabloid around.

"Oh, look, you're cheating on me!" May chirped, pointing to a particular paragraph.

Cadie laughed at that. "So they've skipped right past our torrid affair?"

"It'd only be torrid if one of us were seeing someone else."

"Well, you'd better get on that, then."

May's eyes peered over the magazine with something like pity, but she said nothing. "They also say you sound like the Schnee heiress," said May.

Cadie groaned. "Why can't they just stick to me screwing half of Remnant?"

"Wait, the Schnee heiress?" asked R.T. "The big butch battleaxe? How the hell could she sound like Cadie?"

May shook her head. "Disowned by choice. It's the waif now."

"Better than the boy. I swear that kid's not even Hu..." R.T. stopped himself as May's eyes shot daggers at him. "I mean, you'd think he's a robot or something." Cadie looked at May; she wouldn't have even noticed the familiarly thoughtless turn of phrase if not for May's reaction. The three of them stood in a conversational Vacuo standoff before Vestal broke the silence, saying "don't put it past Atlas." That got a chuckle from all three, and the subject was dropped.

It wasn't the first time Cadie'd heard she sounded like the heiress, but it was the first time she'd heard it from one of her own bandmates. That evening, she listened to some of the heiress's songs, which she understood the heiress had written herself, or at least gotten herself credited. As she might've expected, they were soaked in disgusting self-pity and self-absorption, even as her family toyed with the lives of Faunus and Human alike.

Cadie began to play a few of Schnee's songs. "Loneliest of all"... so damn lonely, with only her massive riches to keep her company, now due to be hers when her father's heart shrivelled and her mother's liver burst. How lonely could she be, born into the life she was? What of those who'd been born with no life, into subjugation?

By the time Cadie turned in, the sky had already begun to brighten; May stirred. "Cadie," she asked, "why are you a virgin?"

"Hmm?" asked Cadie, "why wouldn't I be?"

"Because hundreds of thousands of twenty-somethings, male and female, Human and Faunus, would go to bed with you without a thought if you asked."

"So I haven't asked."

"Why not?" To that Cadie didn't have an answer to the Human she'd known nearly all her life. She looked to one side. "Have you?" she muttered.

"Yes!" said May. "And you know that. You've seen them." This was true - May would, once or twice a month, bring some fanboy into their trailer. "You're deflecting. Badly."

"I know."

"It's not me... is it?"

"No, May, no," said Cadie. "It's me. I will, one day, but right now, whomever I take to bed, I'll be right there with them, and that's what I don't want."

"If not now, when?"

"I don't know."

A few days later, as Royal Test turned up for a bar gig, the bouncer put his hand on Cadie's shoulder. "Wait."

"Hmm?" asked Cadie, more-or-less knowing what was coming. Her eyes flicked back to May, who was ready to kill.

"Straight to the stage and back," said the bouncer. "If you need a break, take it in the stockroom; there's an employee restroom off the stockroom. The coat stays on, period."

"Sure," said Cadie.

For practically the entire set she kept her feet apart, her tail clearly visible through her legs, but the coat did stay on.

She was ready to leave, but May stopped her. "Deathstalker bowl for two."

"You're underage," said the bartender; she didn't even look up.

"The hell I am! Here, look!" said May, producing her Scroll's registration.

"Here, you're underage." Cadie put a hand on May's shoulder. "May, come on." They left.

Back in their van, Cadie addressed May. "May, I know you think you're doing me a favor when you pull shit like that, but you aren't."

"You know I can't stand to see that shit."

"I know, but, May, you have to understand these petty little acts of resistance only make things worse. You know how our demonstrations keep turning into White Fang rallies; you're doing the same thing."

"Cadie, I'd _join_ the White Fang if they'd let me! Even here in Vale, we see 'No Faunus' signs, even if there's a stigma attached - and we know it's worse in Mistral, in Atlas."

"Still, I know you feel that way, but then you go home and think of something else. This is my home; those signs and ads for me aren't a thing to be outraged about, they're just... a thing. And whenever some well-meaning Human makes a show of it, the signs get that much bolder."

"Home," said May, "we sleep ten feet apart."

Cadie chuckled. "You know what I mean."

"No, Cadie, you don't know what I mean - we're in this together." She put her hands on Cadie's shoulders.

"Be careful," said Cadie, glancing down. "The tabloids already think we're going at it."

"I think this is where I give you a peck on the lips, you recoil tail on end, and it's never mentioned again, but the viewers spend years insisting we were meant to be."

Cadie's smile broadened; no other Human would've gotten away with the tail comment. "I think this is the part where I smack you upside the head."

"That too." They hugged. "Cadie," said May, "you deserve better."

"I know I do - which is my point," said Cadie, "I know that better than you do." Cadie broke the hug and put her hands on May's shoulders. "And what's more, I know enough to know that pretending that what's deserved already is won't get anyone what they deserve." May sighed and bowed her head.

Still, it would be noted that it was around this date Royal Test's songs became angrier. Not all of them, not even all of Cadie's - as many of May's, really - but enough that note was taken. Despite concerns that led initially to these songs being shunned as singles, CCTS and radio buzz around these songs soon led the studio to follow the Lien.

All the while, Cadie had been working on her "thing." That bar on the Mistral periphery was a distant memory. The label had assigned them a dedicated manager, a shark Faunus. Finally Cadie's "thing" was complete, and the band prepared for the tour on which they'd present it.

"Pyrotechnics are absolutely nonnegotiable for this tour," said Cadie.

"Do you really think you're in a position to declare what is or isn't negotiable?" asked the manager.

"Yes," said Cadie.

"Well, you're not," said the manager.

Cadie glanced around the room. "Girls and boy?"

The four of them began to walk out, their steps synchronized. The manager sighed.

"Point taken," said the manager. "You'll have your pyrotechnics."

"Good," said Cadie.

Before long, they were rehearsing with the pyrotechnics. While their manager had allowed them the pyrotechnics, he hadn't allowed them the technicians, leaving them on their own. It was something of a minor miracle that it wasn't until two nights before their first show of the tour that Cadie got a blast of fire to the face.

"Cadie!" shouted May, rushing to her friend.

Cadie was caked in soot, coughing it out. When May made it over to her, she looked her up and down to find the soot was only soot. Even her clothes were unscathed, except for a few bits that fell away from her body. May brushed the soot from Cadie's cheek, marveling at the unscathed flesh underneath.

"Aura?" asked May.

"Yeah," said Cadie.

"How... who... when... why?"

"That bitch at the foster home - remember her? After what happened to my mother, she thought I had to learn. I... I guess she saved my hand," said Cadie, raising a soot-caked hand.

May looked at Cadie, her bloodshot eyes dripping tears. She pulled her to herself, and Cadie returned her embrace.

Of course, the show must go on, and it did go on, pyrotechnics and all.

"This is a new song," said Cadie. "See if you can't guess which of us wrote it."

She sang the two couplets she'd written. Between the last two words, a small fire began to blaze on the top of the harpsichord, as the stage rotated and May went into her solo. On the release version, this had been trimmed at the label's insistence to six measures, but tonight she would milk it for all it was worth.

Now the stage came back around. The lights on the stage dimmed as Cadie sang the couplet she'd stolen from the heiress, the heavier instruments slowly picking up behind her. At last, when only the fire lit her face, it was snuffed out. She stood from the harpsichord.

Now came what Cadie had called to herself the "angry" segment; it put some pressure on May, although it'd been May largely who'd inspired it, but the most pressure here was on the audience. A Faunus lead drew a Faunus audience, but there were only so many Faunus, and three quarters of their songs (albeit, she prided herself, not quite half their hits) were written by Humans. Cadie couldn't see them, but although she'd been in a dark place when she'd written this, she still meant every word.

At last, hoping they wouldn't notice, Cadie took a deep breath. It was time for the last segment, the drums coming in heavy. Cadie saw the adoration on the faces, Human and Faunus alike, lit by the pyrotechnics as she launched into the final verse, her tail out to the side to be as obvious as she could make it.

"I BURN!"


End file.
